Grandma Foley’s Irish Soda Bread

Whiskey-soaked raisins dot this classic Irish soda bread. Enjoy it warm with a schmear of salted Irish butter — there’s really no better way.

In a perfect world, we would all have the time and energy to make beautiful loaves of sourdough every week, letting them rise beneath antique linens in wooden bowls on our countertops. But unfortunately, most of us lack the requisite twelve to eighteen spare hours to make this happen.

Does that mean we don’t deserve hot, fresh bread? Absolutely not. We deserve freshly baked bread, and we deserve it regularly, preferably with a swipe of perfectly softened butter, a cup of coffee, and a few uninterrupted minutes to sit.

Irish soda bread is the perfect bread for such use. Because it requires only baking soda for leavening (hence the name), it takes far less time to make than sourdoughs or yeasted breads. In fact, you can have a loaf of soda bread on your table an hour from now. A warm slice sounds pretty good right about now, no?

What you’ll need to make this Irish soda bread:

Soda bread requires just a few basic ingredients, but this recipe takes the simple loaf up a notch with a few special additions. To make this version, you’ll need:

• Buttermilk. If you don’t have any, you can make your own! Just combine regular milk with a few tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice, then stir and set it aside for a few minutes to curdle.
• Butter, for flavor and browning. While I usually use unsalted butter in baking, I love to use salted Irish butter here.
• Flour, salt, and sugar. I use granulated sugar in the loaf and a sprinkle of coarse turbinado sugar on top for sparkle and crunch. If you don’t have turbinado sugar, feel free to skip it or sprinkle with a bit of regular sugar instead.
• Baking soda! Perhaps the most important ingredient, this is what gives the bread its no-yeast rise.
• Raisins and Irish whiskey. I know raisins can be a divisive ingredient, but I consider them non-negotiable here. I soak them in whiskey for a few reasons: it softens them, makes them plumper and juicier, and gives a little boozy bite. What’s not to love?

The one downside of Irish soda bread is that it tends to go stale quickly. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem, though, since it usually disappears before staleness becomes an issue. If you expect to eat it within a few days, wrap it in plastic wrap and foil. It should keep on the counter for 2-3 days before it starts to dry out.

Or, if you’d like to keep it for longer, slice it and store in a freezer bag. It’ll keep in the freezer for up to a month. I recommend brushing frozen slices with a little bit of water before reheating in the oven. They’ll be good as new!

More Irish-inspired recipes:
Guinness & Cheddar Shepherd’s Pie

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